Do you ever dream of flying? The Flight Club offers a variety of aerial sports to thrill and challenge you. Dare to take the first step and earn your license.

—The introductory screen from the first game of the series.

Pilotwings is a flight simulator franchise created by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64 and Nintendo 3DS. The game was developed by Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development division (led by Shigeru Miyamoto), and was first released in 1990 in Japan and 1991 in the United States. The European release followed in 1992.

The games feature several training missions and lessons that players must complete in order to earn pilot licenses, using several different vehicles (including a plane, hang glider, rocket belt, as well as skydiving and other secret unlockable vehicles). Players are graded based on a number of different factors, including checkpoints cleared, accuracy, time spent and completion of required (or additional) tasks. Some missions also have bonus stages that can be cleared for extra points.

Pilotwings was well-received upon its release due to its overall graphical presentation and gameplay style. In 1996, Pilotwings 64 was released as a launch title for the Nintendo 64, featuring sharper graphics, more areas to explore and a variety of bonus games. In 2011, Nintendo also released Pilotwings Resort for the handheld Nintendo 3DS.

Interestingly, all three games in the series have been developed by separate companies. As mentioned before, Nintendo EAD made the first game. Paradigm Entertainment, who already made video simulation, helped with 64. Monster Games, who specializes in racing games, lent a hand with Resort.

The series provides examples of:

AFGNCAAP: The player character in the original... up until the end credits. Dark hair, male, looks to be in his 20's, with about as much Japanese as Big Al.

Averted in the later games. 64 has six individual people you can play as. Resort features a Mii of the player's choice.

The free flight mode in Resort includes this. "i" rings, balloons, rings, and trophies are scattered throughout Wuhu Island.

Character Select Forcing: Present, but only lightly enforced. In 64, each class of pilot works best with a specific vehicle (Light = Rocket Belt, Medium = Hang Glider, Heavy = Gyrocopter). While it's not impossible to do well by, say, placing Lark (the lightweight male pilot) in a Gyrocopter, matching up the right character with the right vehicle does make it a fair bit easier.

Continuity Nod: Your reward for three-starring every mission in Resort is Meca Hawk making a surprise reappearance. He can be found circling Wedge Island, with a "i" ring above him. His facts state he's mellowed out and isn't bent for destruction. He even screams if you crash into him!

Eagleland: Goose and Robin from 64 are very American in their designs, from their blond hair to the predominant use of red, white, and blue colors on their casual attire (this is combined with stars and stripes for their flight suits).

You're also often treated to your character screaming as they crash out of control.

Hollywood Darkness: Both played with and averted in the original. Area 7 takes place at dusk, but the visibility is still clear. Area 8 and the final helicopter mission, by contrast, are in near-pitch darkness.

Humongous Mecha: 64 had a mission where you fought a giant robot version of Hawk, named Meca Hawk. As mentioned above, he'll come to Wuhu Island after beating the game. Since he's chilled out, he won't fight you this time.

Impact Silhouette: Your character will leave a human-shaped silhouette in the ground if you go skydiving without opening your parachute in the original game.

It's Up to You: When your instructors are kidnapped by E.V.I.L., Al loads you into a helicopter to rescue them solo.

Pass Through the Rings: One of the oldest examples of the trope; the original game was one of the (if not the) first video games to use this type of system.

Remixed Level: After completing all five missions, you're paraded through them again. The weather conditions have changed, and the difficulty is ramped up.

Rushmore Refacement: In Pilotwings 64, one level allows you to shoot a rockface of Mario carved into the side of Mount Rushmore, which changes it into Wario's face. Crashing into also yields the same result, and doing so for a second time would change the visage back to that of Mario's.

Scenery Porn: Half the fun of the entire franchise is cruising around looking at the backgrounds and islands.

Spiritual Sequel: Pilotwings Resort seems to be one for Wii Sports Resort, oddly enough. (Specifically, it's mostly based on the Island Flyover mode from that game. In particular Free Flight mode is pretty much identical, just with more vehicles allowed.)

Tech Demo Game: The entire franchise could be considered an example of this. The original game was mostly used to demonstrate the Mode 7 capabilities of the Super Nintendo, and was one of the first games to be released for the console, while Pilotwings 64 was one of the launch titles for the Nintendo 64. Pilotwings Resort is also a launch title, carrying on in the tradition of the franchise.

Theme Naming: All the pilots in 64 are named after birds. In order: Lark, Kiwi, Goose, Ibis, Hawk, and Robin.

Third Is 3D: Resort is the third game in the series, and is indeed totally 3D.

Timed Mission: Every mission must be completed within a certain time limit in order to get the best score/move on to the next stage.

Unexpected Gameplay Change: The original game throws this curveball midway through; it starts out with simple training exercises on various aircraft, then turns into an action game where you have to avoid anti-aircraft fire in a helicopter to rescue your instructors.

Vector Game: A rasterized depiction of vector graphics is used in the original game on the apparatus selection screen.

TV Tropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy